Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence - ROBERT FRIPP.
Information is not knowledge;
knowledge is not wisdom;
wisdom is not truth;
truth is not beauty;
beauty is not love;
love is not music;
MUSIC IS THE BEST - FRANK ZAPPA.
I think we're a little happier when we have a little music in our lives - STEVE JOBS.
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe - LAO TZU.
Rock and Roll is fire, man. FIRE. - DAVID BRIGGS.
Music grips you, gets into your soul -
GEORGE MARTIN
Alter BridgeOne Day Remains(CD - Wind-up Records, 2004) **** Alter BridgeBlackbird(CD - Universal Republic Records, 2007) **** Genre: American pop/rock Places I remember:Virgin Megastore Abu Dhabi; Music Box Record Exchange (Hastings) Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:White Knuckles (Blackbird) is nicely representative of the Alter Bridge experience.
Gear costume:Wayward One (Blackbird); Find the Real, Down To My Last (ODR)
Active compensatory factors: They used to be Creed but please don't hold that against them. Along came the lung busting vocals of Myles Kennedy and hey presto, they are Alter Bridge! These are the band's first two albums. They sound kinda like Volume 1 and 2, even though are three years apart so it seemed a good idea to pair them here. If old school guitar shredding rawk is your bag - get hip to be square and check out these dudes! Where do they all belong? America is next up in the US pop/ rock genre.
Lene MarlinPlaying My Game(CD - Virgin, 1999) *** Genre: Norwegian pop/ rock Places I remember:Virgin Megastore Dubai Mall. Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:Sitting Down Here
Gear costume:Unforgivable Sinner Active compensatory factors: I started my Lene Marlin obsession via a sampler. Sitting Down Here was a crazily effective ditty. It got into my brain and wouldn't let go. In a nice way. Lene's wholesound is a superb mix of pop hooks, Scandinavian mystery and appropriate beats. It's catchy as all get out. Taylor Swift was certainly one person who was listening and watching closely! I can just imagine a preteen Tay Tay picking up on what Lene was doing! Where do they all belong? Debut album in a stellar career. Another Day is next. No difficult second album syndrome for Lene.
RammsteinLive Aus Berlin(CD - Universal, 1999) **** (***** for the DVD version) Genre: German pop/rock Places I remember:The Warehouse (Cambridge) Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Engel (sadly, the Berlin version not available)
Gear costume:Du Hast, Asche zu Asche, Rammstein Active compensatory factors: Brutal. But not humourless. There is no better place to start if you have never experienced the joy of listening to Rammstein. Utterly captivating - the DVD of this concert trumps the CD/Record. The malevolent robot cartoon concept is breathtaking in its execution. It's impossible to turn away for even a second. Go view it now and turn your hifi stereo support system up to 11!! Where do they all belong? Next up - the boys head back to the studio with Mutter
Rory GallagherBBC Sessions(CD - Capo, 1999) *** Genre: Irish pop/ rock Places I remember: HMV Stratford Mall, London Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:I take What I want
Gear costume:Country Mile, Race The Breeze Active compensatory factors: Rory played everywhere, and he always played for fun. If ever a guy had a guitar shaped heart, it was Rory Gallagher. If ever I guy had his mojo working on a consistent basis, it was Rory. Here we find Rory on the wireless, both in the concert and studio mode over two CDs. He lets rip! As he always did! Faithful allies Gerry McAvoy, Lou Martin and Rod deAth are present and correct - laying down the bedrock for Rory to do his expansive best upon. Where do they all belong? More to come in the firey/bluesy guitar stylings of Rory Gallagher.
Big Country Live in New York City 1986 (CD - Immortal, 2012) *** Big Country Without The Aid Of A Safety Net (Live) (CD -EMI, 1994) ***** Genre: Scottish pop/rock Places I remember: The Warehouse (Hastings); Music store in the Onehunga Mall back in 1994. Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles/ Gear costume:Just A Shadow (Live in NYC); Everything on Without...Net.
The whole concert is magical but if you want a brief sample - try Thirteen Valleys at 9.40 mark.
Active compensatory factors: I quite liked Big Country when, in 1994, I came across Without...a Net in a remainder store in the Onehunga Mall (best $5 I've ever spent). From that point on, I LOVED Big Country. Without...a Net is a nigh on perfect live album: bags of atmosphere at the Barrowlands in Glasgow; Stuart Adamson's warm vocals and welcome; the way it begins with a number of acoustic versions and builds and builds; the crowd singalongs and chiming in at appropriate times; the electric intensity at the end of the concert! It is magic and I could listen to it every day without ever getting weary of it. The other live album in this post has some great moments but the audio quality and atmosphere is not a patch on Without...a Net. Where do they all belong? A fitting tribute to Adamson's genius. More BC to come.
StereophonicsWord Gets Around(CD - V2, 1997) *** StereophonicsPerformance and Cocktails(CD - V2, 1999) ** StereophonicsJust Enough Education To Perform(CD - V2, 2001) *** StereophonicsYou Gotta Go There To Come Back(CD - V2, 2003) *** Genre: Welsh pop/rock Places I remember: Record shop Central World Plaza in Bangkok, Fives (Leigh-on-sea)and HMV (Edinburgh and Oxford Street) Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles:Maybe Tomorrow
Gear costume:Traffic (Word Gets Around); Local Boy In The Photograph (WGA);
Active compensatory factors: We were living in Essex in 2004 and I had back catalogued from 2003's You Gotta Go There To Come Back, which I'd bought in Bangkok on the way to my first ever visit to the UK the year before. Which is why I've lumped the first four Stereophonics albums together. Keeping up in the back? At the time (2003), the title struck me as being particularly prescient, and I'd heard Local Boy In A Photograph on a compilation, and liked it a lot. So I took a punt. The song Maybe Tomorrow is responsible. I listened to YGGTTCB a lot on the plane ride from Bangkok to London to help quell my nerves. It had the right kind of melancholy longing and haunted wistfulness that matched my mood. In the end I was going home (to Rochdale) but that was fleeting and, as it turned out, unsustainable. Although it's not brilliant, when I got sorted in Leigh-on-sea I dug around and picked up the back catalogue. None are classics but there are enough individual brilliant songs scattered among each one to make me keep coming back for more.
While Word Gets Around is a really good debut, Performance and Cocktails, for me, suffers from classic second album syndrome (most of the time, Kelly Jones tries too hard). Third album Just Enough Education To Perform hits the mark with some classic pop and a more varied approach - Mr Writer and especially Have A Nice Day distinguish themselves. Which brings us back to where I started with Maybe Tomorrow. Where do they all belong? A swag of post YGGTTCB albums to come.
